hm, another font than a grunge/western style or the tf2build looks kind of odd to me, never rly fits right. the colors seem also a too intense for the game. you need to work on the alpha channel, there is an ugly white stroke around the sprays.
maybe turn down the photoshopish 3d "bewel and emboss" filter down on the bomb.
the "e" in reliable should be lower case.
sry if thats harsh, dont mean to, it´s just too early and i didnt get my coffee yet.

I think the font looks right, but I agree that the colors are way too intense... there is an overlay thread around here with the official TF2 color palette the devs use, if you remake them with those colors these overlays would rock.

Does it help?
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Make you laugh?
The quickest way to express yourself:

Yup, no offense but these arent good. The fonts are too over-cartoony, the images are photos completely wrapped up in photshop filters, the colors are incredibly intense... I can see you've added a high contrast to make it look cool. A tip is to to export a valve overlay, have it on a layer under the ones you're working on to see and compare.

Shmitz said:

It'd take more than just an overwhelming majority to convince FaTony that he is wrong about something. It would take lobotomy.

I've got to agree with Notoorjus. There is potential in the basic composition, but anyone who's ever used Photoshop will immediately recognize the mess of filters applied to make things look "cooler". Try using some clean industrial type fonts or some serif fonts with a basic Western type style. Drop the filters and try to achieve a more painterly look similar to 50's commercial artworks. Also, tone down the colors by using the TF2 color palette that has been suggested already. One of the key things about Valve's logo overlays is that they appear slightly faded and worn - like they've been there for some time.

So again, the composition has potential, but try some of the suggested alterations to make your logos fit into the environment rather than distract or detract from it.

Wow, sorry guys, didn't say you had to like them, yet there they are. I made these quite a while ago. Thanks for the tips, but maybe next time I'll think twice about contributing. No sense being elitist about things.

I don't think anyone has been insulting or elitist here. I think everyone appreciates your contribution, Manqueef. All I see are healthy doses of constructive criticism and critique. There is a big difference between bashing someone's work and suggesting how they might improve.

hehe Altaco, that might pass as the first comment tangenting an insult

no, rly, no one doesn´t appreciate the work someone puts up, but its also a fact that any work presented is always open for discussion and criticism
thats just the nature of the beast

just switch the colors to the official color palette, clean up the alpha, the small dots all around (probably only 1 pixel, amplified by the stroke you applied on the overlays), switch the fonts, and cut down on the filter usage

i´m not a conformist at all, but this game has its unique, pretty accurately designed visual rules, anything else will just look out of place.

if you like it the way it is, leave it as it is, but don´t get dissappointed when some people refrain from using the overlays in their current state.

People can modify them anyway they want, if they feel the need to do so. This is how I made them, I'm not ashamed of them. I'm not usually one to follow standards, even Valve's. *shrugs*

And as far as criticism goes, I'm a senior art student trying get a BFA and get out--I know the difference between constructive criticism and what's not. Bad criticism by anonymous people above all else really doesn't do a damn thing to me. I'll just say from visits here I considered this community to be of higher standards. I hope it still is.

Listen, theres a fine line between easily taking offense and being arrogant. Now, you're arrogant. If you're gonna be an ass we're gonna be asses back. I could have said what I really thought, that your overlays are terrible. They're ugly, filter raped abominations who no serious mapper would ever dream of including in their maps. Instead I gave you constructive feedback on how you could improve. If you start mapping with this attitude... What if someone gives you a comment on its gameplay or looks? Are you going to go apeshit because we don't praise it instantly?

Thanks x 2

Shmitz said:

It'd take more than just an overwhelming majority to convince FaTony that he is wrong about something. It would take lobotomy.

I'm a senior art student trying get a BFA and get out--I know the difference between constructive criticism and what's not.

Click to expand...

Really? Because I was taking AP art classes as a Junior in High School in 1997-98 and entered art school in late 1999 on a $12,000 scholarship (granted based purely off my High School portfolio). By 2003 I had my BFA in Graphic Design and Illustration. Now I work professionally as a graphic artist and can tell you that if you think the comments above are anything but constructive criticism you need to re-evaluate your definition of the term. Constructive criticism politely points out flaws and makes suggestions on how to improve them. In contrast, a fantastic example of pure negative criticism can be found in Notoorjus' previous post.

I welcomed you in your introduction thread and said that this is the best TF2 mapping community you could ever be a part of. It is the best because of the community's ability to hand out and accept constructive criticism and use it as a learning tool. Please, recognize and take that constructive feedback for what it is instead of proclaiming how accomplished you are and how you must know better. There will always be someone around to one-up you.

gosh, what´s up with this guy, not a single one of us was unfriendly before he got all defensive and suddenly we were the bad guys.
like S.Tom i´m also a professional illustrator and now in my last semesters at a Design-University...
first thing you learn for yourself or from colleagues:
try not using filters, but when you do, this should only be a step you work with to achieve a certain goal, but you shouldn´t be able to tell which filter was used. i´m glad i get a good education